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SO WATT !
About design in energy

FROM MAY 25 TO SEPTEMBER 9 2007


Over thirty designers the world over take hold of the energy saving issue


Wattson / England 2006 Diy Kyoto. This object allows one to follow the consumption of electricity, giving the necessary information to undertake energy saving measures. Photo: Toby Summerskill


Who could imagine today living without electricity? It is an integral part of our daily life, and yet we have to preserve it. How can we behave in a more conservative and reasonable manner when electricity is perfectly immaterial, invisible, intangible? Thirty designers from all over the world - Bless, Solarlab, 5.5 designers, Positive Flow…- have tried to answer this question through some fifty projects.


New esthetics

The exhibition is organized into six themes that present a responsible relation to the consumption of electric energy. Design helps the latter become visible, tangible and inspires new esthetics. Certain objects symbolize it, like Gilles Belley's adaptor that materializes the loss of energy due to electric appliances left in the sleep mode. The idea gains credibility if we realize that on the scale of France, the estimate of the consumption due only to appliances left - often uselessly - in the sleep mode is equivalent to the annual consumption of 1 million homes... Other objects, such as lamps, awnings or wallpaper designed by Static! react according to the house's level of consumption and change form or color. Lastly, the Freeplay radios and flashlights produce their own energy.


Attractive, surprising and intelligent objects

So Watt! allows us to discover projects that are mostly prospective, sometimes utopian, and some that have already been produced. It shows there are an increasing number of creators interested in the subject of energy, that it already encourages projects and that there is still a lot to be invented… While the subject can be approached in many ways and the formal suggestions are very diverse, one thing is sure, objects that reflect another relation to energy must be attractive, surprising and intelligent. Whether an interface, an object energetically autonomous or the integration of renewable sources of energy, solutions must have certain esthetic qualities for us to integrate them in a lasting way and understand intuitively what is at stake. There is a true challenge for design and for the environment .


From the point of view of desire

This event is open to all publics and wishes to demonstrate that a responsible vision of energy can also give birth to attractive objects, to surprising environments and to new scenarios. In a clever manner the designers apply incredibly simple or remarkably sophisticated solutions. We chose in this instance to tend toward desire and to use it to motivate necessary changes. In this aspect design has an important part to play. We can face the issue of energy control and the development of renewable sources of energy by making the understanding of the constrain evolve and by transforming it into an opportunity for creation.


PUBLICATION

Special issue (in French) published together with Beaux-Arts Magazine



Illustration: Damian O'Sullivan / Holland Solar Lampion. This cordless lamp recharges its batteries through 36 mini solar panels. Each one of them is coupled to an electro luminescent diode.


Creators present in the exhibition
(South Africa, Germany, Canada, United-States, France, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Russia, Sweden)

Art Lebedev (Yegor Zhgun), Gilles Belley, Bless, François Brument, Design Council (Colin Burns, Jude Codner, Kirstie Edmunds, Nick Morton, Robin Murray, Chloe Myers, Chris Vanstone and Jennie Winhall), Diy Kyoto, EDF Design, Elioth + Encore Heureux, Eton Freeplay, Front, Giffin'Termeer, Horizon Fuell Cell, Michael Jantzen, Magenn, Bruno Martinet, Normal Studio, O2 France, Elodie Poidatz, Positive Flow, Radi Designers, François Roche, Solarlab, Static! (Christina Öhman, Ramia Mazé, Sara Backlund, Anders Ernevi, Anton Gustafsson, Magnus Gyllenswärd, Sara Ilstedt, Hjelm, Margot Jacobs, Andreas Kvarnström, Mattias Ludvigsson, Andreas Lykke-Olesen, Ulrika Löfgren, Samuel Palm, Johan Redström, Damian O'Sullivan, Skysails, Solarjo, Alexandre Tonneau, Vincent Vandenbrouck, 5.5 Designers.

ESPACE EDF ELECTRA 6, rue Récamier, 75007 Paris
INFORMATION: T. 01 53 63 23 45 Fondation EDF Nathalie Bazoche T. 01 40 42 70 24 nathalie.bazoche@edf.fr
OPENING HOURS: Everyday except on Monday and Bank holidays.
ADMISSION FEES: Free entry.
CURATORSHIP: Stéphane Villard
SCENOGRAPHY: Gaëlle Gabillet
PRESS CONTACT: Heymann Renoult associées 29, rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau 75001 Paris
Tel. 01 44 61 76 76 / Fax. 01 44 61 74 40 Email p.delahalle@heymann-renoult.com
Site www.heymann-renoult.com